Musculus, "Wolfgang. See Meisel.
Museia, a festival with contests celebrated in honor of the iNIuses every fifth year at Thespiic, in lioeotia, See Gardner, Faiths of the World, p. 499.
Muserni, an atheistical sect among the Mohamme- dans who endeavored to conceal from all except the in- itiated their gross denial of the existence of a God, Tliey attempted to account for the existence and growtli of all things by referring to the inherent power of na- ture. See Gardner, Faiths of the World, p. 499.
Muses was the name employed to designate in the classic mythology those divinities originally in- cluded among the Nymphs, but afterwards regarded as ipiite distinct from them. To them was ascribed the power of inspiring song, and jioets and musicians ■were therefore regarded as their i)uiiils and favorites. . They were lirst honored among tlie Thracians, and as Pieria around Olympus was the original seat of that peojile, it came to be considered as the native country of the Pluses, who were therefore called I'ieridis. In the earliest period tlieir number was three, though Homer sometimes speaks of a single Muse, and once,
at least, alludes to nine. This last is the number given by Hesiod in his Theogony, who also mentions their names : Clio, Euterpe, Thaleia, Jlelpomene, Terpsichore, Erato, Polyhymnia, L'rania, and Calliope. Their origin is differently given, but the most widely-spread account represented them as the daughters of Zeus and Jlne- roosyne. Homer speaks of them as the goddesses of song, and as dwelling on the summit of Olympus. They arc also often represented as the companions of Apollo, and as singing while he played upon the lyre at the banquets of the immortals. In the most ancient works of art we find only three Muses, and their attributes are musical instruments, such as the flute, the lyre, or the barbiton; it was not until the more modern ideal of Apollo Musagetes, in the garb of the Pythian musi- cians, was developed that the number nine was estab- lished by several famous artists in regard to these vir- gins, who were in like manner clad for the most part in theatrical drapery, with fine intellectual countenances, distinguished from one another by expression, attri- butes, and sometimes also by attitudes. 1. Calliope, the ^luse of epic poetry, is characterized by a tablet and stylus, and sometimes by a roll of papers. 2. Clio, the Muse of historj', is represented either with an open roll of paper or an open chest of books. 3. Euterpe, the Muse of lyric poetry, is given a flute, and sometimes two Hutes. 4. Melpomene, the iluse of tragedy, is charac- terized by a tragic mask, the club of Hercides, or a sword, her head is surrounded with vine -leaves, and she wears tlie cothumus. 5. Terpsichore, the Muse of choral dance and song, appears with the lyre and the plectrum. 6. Erato, the Muse of erotic poetry and inimic imitation, is also characterized by a lyre. 7. Polymnia, the JIuse of the sublime hymn, is usually represented leaning in a pensive or meditating atti- tude. 8. Urania, the Muse of astronomy, bears a globe in her hand. 9. Thalia, the Muse of comedy and idyl- lic poetry, is characterized by a comic mask, a shep- herd's staff, and a wreath of ivy. Various legends as- cribed to them victories in musical competitions, par- ticularly over the Sirens (q. v.), and they are sometimes represented with plumes on their heads, su]iposed to typify such victory. In the later classic times, partic- ular provinces were assigned to the Pluses in connection with different departments of literature, science, and the fine arts; but the invocations addressed to them appear to have been, as in the case of modern writers, merely formal imitations of the early poets. Their worship among the Romans was a mere imitation of the Greeks, and never became truly national or popu- lar. Among the jilaces sacred to them were the wells of Aganippe and Hippocrcnc on INIount Helicon, and the Castalian spring on Mount Parnassus. — Chamheis's Cy- chpwdia, s. v. ; Smith, Did. Greek and Roman Biogr. ii, 1124 sq. ; Westropp, Iland-hook of A rchaology, p. 190 sq. Museum (Gr. povaiiov), originally the name given by the ancients to a temple of the JIuscs, and afterwards to a building devoted to science, learning, and the line arts. The first museum of this kind was the celebrated Alexandrian Museum. See Ai.kxandkia. After the revival of learning in Europe, the term museum was sometimes applied to the apartment in which any kind of philosophical apparatus was kept and used; but it has long been almost exclusively appropriated to col- lections of the monuments of anti(iuity, and of other things interesting to the scholar and man of science. I In this sense it began to be first used in Italy, and prob- ! ably in the case of the famous Florentine Jluscum, 1 founded by Cosmo de' Jledici, which soon became a great ' and most valuable collection of antiquities. Nothing analogous to the museums of modern times existed among the ancients, the greatest collections of statues and paintings which were made in the houses of wealthy ' Homans having been intended for sjilendor rather than \ for the promotion of art. The name soon ceased to be ' limited to collections of anti(pnties and sculi^turcs and I paintings; collections illustrative of natural history and